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Monday, 26 June 2017

From the UK IPO's Unified Patent Court Taskforce, comes this e-mail update about the Unified Patent Court (Immunities and Privileges) Order 2017:

Secondary legislation in the form of an Order on Privileges and Immunities for the Unified Patent Court were laid in Parliament under the International Organisations Act 1968 today. Separate legislation will be laid in the Scottish Parliament in due course.

This is the final legislative step in the UK’s ratification of the Unified Patent Court. The Orders implement the Protocol on Privileges & Immunities and gives the Unified Patent Court its legal personality in UK law. The Orders are affirmative orders, which means they will be debated in each House of Parliament. Separately the Scottish Order will be debated in the Scottish Parliament. They will also require Privy Council approval. Once this legislation has been passed the UK will be able to formally ratify the UPC Agreement.

The Preparatory Committee of the UPC recently confirmed that the provisional timetable for entry into force (1 December 2017) could not be met. The Preparatory Committee is monitoring progress and will announce a new opening day in due course.

With Germany's recent constitutional challenge (as reported by the IPKat here) and Parliament being distracted by the recent UK elections and Brexit negotiations, do not hold your breath for much UPC activity before the House rises on 20 July 2017. It's summer, after all...

2 comments:

" Separate legislation will be laid in the Scottish Parliament in due course. "

What constitutes "due course"? If the Order could be presented at Westminster, why could the Scottish order not be presented at the same time? [Indeed why were they nor presented to Parliament at the same time as the treaty].

The leisurely action after the 2016 announcement that the UK would participate, smacks of time-wasting and indecisiveness and perhaps internal politicking.

What does not seem to be taken seriously is that UK ratification of the UPC is a wasting asset. The longer it is delayed, the less its value.

Unless the UK gets its finger out, it will become increasingly likely that the calculation will be "Let's wait until March 2019 and go ahead without the UK".

So HMG - be strong and stable and do something. Don't flap like a fish out of water. Time is running out.

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